They took the league by storm this past season. The running quarterbacks that executed the option and zone read to perfection. Carolina's Cam Newton, San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick, Seattle's Russell Wilson and Washington Robert Griffin were all very productive executing their versions of the scheme. Buffalo experienced a great deal of problems trying to defend it in Week 15 last year when Wilson ran wild on them for 92 yards and three touchdowns averaging 10.2 per carry. Bills new defensive coordinator Mike Pettine is convinced the scheme is only going to increase in popularity in the NFL.

"One team made it to the Super Bowl doing it," said Pettine. "You look at the success of R.G. III and the success of the Seahawks. It's a copycat league so it's coming and defenses are going to need to have an answer and get caught up."

Pettine is right. According to ESPN2's 'The Numbers Never Lie', in 2010 there were a total of 49 option plays run in the NFL. In 2011 there were 277. This past season that number ballooned to 515. Expecting that trend to continue Pettine made sure he had assistants who could help offer solutions when it came time to game plan for such opponents.